Netscape Is Dead

Netscape has been dead for a very long time, but now it is official.

I started out using Netscape Navigator. Back in the day my local ISP Fuse used it as the default browser on their CD that was sent to new subscribers. I was hooked on it the minute I first used it. I have never given Internet Explorer the time of day since. I went from Netscape Navigator to the Mozilla Suite and then on to Firefox and Thunderbird. Netscape lost me to Firefox and a new logo and skin couldn’t change that.

As the article points out, the last two versions of Netscape were nothing more than re-themed versions of Firfox with some Netscape extensions installed by default.

If you are nostalgic about the old dog, you can download the theme and extensions for Firefox from here.

 

Technorati tags: Netscape, Firefox, Thunderbird, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Mozilla Suite

Whew

 

Technorati tags: XM, Sirius, HD Radio

Uh-oh. Apple <3 HD Radio

  If this rumor proves to be true you can forget this shit about HD Radio going away. I’m serious as hell here. Apple can single handedly save HD Radio from the dumper.

I was a little intrigued when I first heard that on some HD Radio models listeners would be able to tag a song that they hear on their HD and buy that sucker on the iTunes Music Store. As Apple really didn’t seem like they had much interest in the idea I really didn’t pay any attention to the news at all.

Now there is this from iLounge.com:

Apple plans a push for iTunes Tagging-ready, HD Radio-equipped boomboxes with iPod docks during the mid-January Macworld Expo event in San Francisco, California. Announced in September, iTunes Tagging is a new HD Radio feature designed to further boost iTunes sales by allowing listeners to “Tag” the currently playing song, automatically adding its information to a “Tagged” playlist on the connected iPod. When synced with a computer, the playlist appears in iTunes, making it easy to purchase tagged tracks from the iTunes Store.

There are entire companies that exist to do nothing more than make accessories for iPods. The iPod is an economic machine, and if Apple actually does this it is a game changer for the HD Radio Alliance.

Amazon MP3 Sales

Man, I just don’t care that Amazon is selling DRM free MP3’s. Honest to God, I don’t.

I fall in the camp of iPod owners that just won’t own anything else. Yes, I know that there are players that offer other features or more features but I am happy with what the iPod offers me. It does what it does simply and easily and doesn’t pile on a bunch of stuff that I just don’t care to have like AM/FM tuners or (I don’t have a Touch or an iPhone) streaming radio stations. I am one that likes the iTunes integration and how easy it is to select some music or podcasts and have the thing synced up for me. No worries, no hassles.

Amazon MP3’s work on the iPod and with iTunes. Great. Some Amazon songs are less than .99. Great. I just don’t care.

Royalties for Terrestrial Radio?

–This post is a few days late. I thought I put it up and didn’t. Sorry–

All I can say is it’s about damn time. Just got a Google Alert for this story in the Washington Times announcing proposed legislation that would end the terrestrial radio exemption from performance royalties. It’s about fucking time. I’ll admit, before I subscribed to Sirius and XM I really didn’t care about the issue at all. Now I do and I am happy to see bipartisan sponsorship of bills in both the House and Senate to set this thing right.

The National Association of Broadcasters naturally came out in opposition to this legislation and I am sure that they are determined to kill this deal, but there were some interesting quotes.

Mel shit on the merger

Q. Why Mel, what would you do if the FCC rejects the Sirius/XM merger.
A. I’ll sue.

Forget about the merger. If I were an FCC commissioner that comment right there would be enough to make me vote no on the merger. You want to sue? FINE! Sue.

Stoooopid Mel. Stoooopid.

 

Technorati tags: Sirius, XM

HD Radio Really Does SUCK!

OK, I feel like that Congressman that spends years and years running as the “family values” candidate and then get’s caught up in the hooker scandal. You try and try to tell people to do as you say, not as you do but it just doesn’t work. That’s me today.

One of my all time favorite radio stations went Internet only some years ago. I LOVED this little station out of Oxford, Ohio and actually felt a loss when they went away. Then they came back. On the Internet. Then they went away again. Then they came back. Again. Anyone at all familiar with the story knows that I am talking about WOXY.com.

I listen to them both through their website, but more often than not I use the radio feature in iTunes as both the main WOXY stream and their Vintage stream are included in the iTunes radio list.

Well, WOXY.com came back to the airwaves in Cincinnati in an odd kind of way a few weeks ago.

The WOXY.com folks signed up with Cincinnati NPR station WVXU to simulcast their Internet stream on their HD 2 channel. I was floored when I heard it. I listened to WOXY at least a couple of hours most days and STILL to this very day miss them being on the air. Even with a subscription to both Sirius and XM I miss not hearing WOXY when I can’t be near an Internet connection. I was torn between REALLY wanting to listen to WOXY and my hatred of HD Radio.

Want to kill HD Radio?

The Copyright Royalty Board feels that the free pass that terrestrial radio gets on performance royalties needs to end. I happen to agree.

Internet radio stations, Sirius, XM, Muzak, Dish Network (Sirius), DirecTV (XM) and cable providers ALL pay royalties to air music. Every bar, restaurant and diner that you go in to that plays music pays royalties. Every store that you shop in that plays music pays royalties for that music. As it should be.

AM and FM radio stations don’t. Under an arcane law from like the 50’s terrestrial radio stations are exempt from these royalties because of the “promotional value” these stations provide for music.

HD Radio. Anybody?

Apparently not. I know that the guy with the totally anti-HD Radio blog posted a link to the compete.com charts but I much prefer using Google Trends. Google being the largest search engine their Trends site is a pretty accurate view of what is hot and what is not in terms of what people are actually searching for.

Here is the Google Trends chart for Sirius, XM, HD Radio and Slacker:

Yep, nobody gives a good fat damn about (NBC Universal, Hulu.com or) HD Radio.

Slacker is a "slacker" as well.

That is a bit of a shock given the hype and excitement that existed not so long ago. I guess missing their target for releasing their portable by 4 months and counting had a bigger impact than they thought it would.

Technorati tags: XM, Sirius, HD Radio, NBC, NBC Universal, Hulu, Hulu.com, Slacker

What happened with NBC/iTunes?

Mr. Zucker has sounded off.

You just knew it was about money. You know, NBC wanting to raise prices and Jobs telling them to go screw. It is a very well known fact that most of the time these relationships between the content provider and Apple always come to blows over what Steve won’t let them charge.

The content provider wanting to raise prices and Jobs holding the line. You can argue the point that it is the right of the content provider to set the price for their product, but I agree with Jobs when he says that .99 is the limit.

Well, according to Jeff Zucker, chief asshat of NBC Universal in an interview with Variety he pulled the NBC U content over money;

“We wanted to take one show, it didn’t matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99,” he said. “We made that offer for months and they said no.”

How much is one episode of a TV show from the 3rd rated broadcast network worth? Jobs hit the nail on the head when he stated that TV shows on iTunes were over priced. If .99 will get me a song on iTunes then .99 should get me a low resolution TV show as well. At $3 a pop over the course of an entire TV season you could buy the DVD box set of Heroes and get a lot more content.